South Korea has been grappling with shifting demographics that have left many middle-aged men – particularly in the countryside – cut adrift amid a potential-wife deficit in a country that prizes the rosy picture of marriage.

As young – and now assertive – Korean women flock from their hometowns for careers in the big cities, the men left behind are increasingly looking overseas for brides. That has meant an influx from poorer Asian nations such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Mongolia.

But this is more than just a mail-order bride example of increased regional economic integration. Oddly, the article blames the abuse of recent immigrant brides to a lack of follow-up by the “agencies” that brought them.

Part of the problem that has led to these fatalities, say experts, is a lack of oversight on agencies who locate foreign brides for Korean men.

It doesn’t, however, get into what incentives such agencies might have for stricter oversight and oddly, it doesn’t seem to advocate for increased government supervision. Should government always let the Market run so freely?